By cloning customer cards that belonged to the German bank Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB), what is believed to be a cybercrime group in Brazil was able to cash them out across the country and obtained over $1.6 million. OLB released a statement that claimed around 2,000 of their customers were affected, but that their accounts had already been refunded the full amount that had been lost. In addition to refunding the accounts, the bank blocked all of the Mastercards and said they will be issuing replacements. OLB stands behind their claim that they were not the victim of a data breach and that the cash out occurred as a result of counterfeit cards and terminals. Mastercard has also started their own investigation and released a statement that said, “We can confirm that neither Mastercard’s network or the EMV technology were compromised. Nor has any account or card data been hacked either at Mastercard, OLB or at a third party. This issue derived from a scam involving organized cybercrime using counterfeit cards and terminals.”
Analyst Notes
While investigations are still pending, users should continuously monitor their accounts for suspicious activity and report any unusual findings to the bank and authorities in a timely manner.
